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Mt. SAC Relays: Keni Harrison opens season with 100 hurdles win

April 20, 2025

Walnut — Keni Harrison looked up at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium scoreboard and shrugged.

Her winning time of 12.70 seconds over the 100-meter hurdles at the 65th Annual Mt. SAC Relays Saturday afternoon was equal to the third fastest time in the world so far this season. But Harrison, the event’s former world recordholder, also realized she might have to run nearly a half-second faster at the U.S. Championships in order to secure one of three U.S. spots for the World Championships.

“I have a coaching change, and so I’m just, my body’s just learning with a new coach,” Harrison said. “So I think we’re headed in the right direction. There’s just a lot of things that I probably need to fix, but this, this is all this race was just to come out here, see what we need to fix.”

Harrison and her new coach, Andreas Behm, also know they have time. The U.S. Championships in Eugene aren’t until July 31-August 3, with the World Championships in Tokyo taking place in September.

While Harrison’s season was just starting, Saturday was her first 100 hurdles race of 2025, several collegians, their conference and NCAA regional meets just weeks away, turned in peak performances.

Arkansas sophomore Jordan Anthony blazed the 100 in 9.98, the fastest time by an American and a collegian this season, and No. 2 in the world in 2025.

USC women’s 4×100 meter relay posted a collegiate-leading 42.36 clocking. Cal State Fullerton’s Joshua Hornsby won his 110 meter high hurdles heat in 13.51, one of the Top 10 collegiate marks in 2025, and putting him within striking distance of Dedy Cooper of San Jose State’s 49-year-old Big West Conference record of 13.43.

Fred Kerley, the 2022 World 100 champion and one of only three men under 10 seconds for the 100, 20 seconds at 200 and 44 in the 400, focused on the quarter-mile Saturday, holding off Arizona State’s Jayden Davis 44.73 to 44.86.

U.S. women’s short hurdles may be the deepest event in the sport, making the 100-meter hurdles one of the toughest events to qualify for in the Olympics or World Championships. This is largely due to the talent of Harrison.

On July 22, 2016, Harrison’s 12.20 clocking in a London Diamond League meet lowered the world record of 12.21 by Bulgaria’s Yordanki Donkova that had stood since 1988 and set in an era of less stringent drug testing, especially in Eastern Europe. A year later Americans accounted for eight of the nine fastest times in the world.

The U.S. depth was evident again at last summer’s Olympic Trials, where Harrison ran 12.39, a time that would have been just two-hundredths off the gold medal-winning time at the Tokyo Olympics but was only good enough for sixth in Eugene.

Harrison has three of the four fastest times in the last 37 years yet an Olympic and World Outdoor Championships gold medal has proven elusive. She was second to U.S. teammate Nia Ali at the 2019 Worlds and claimed the silver behind Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho Quinn at the Tokyo Olympics.

Her pursuit of gold is what led her to leave legendary coach Bob Kersee and her Los Angeles-based training group that also included two-time Olympic 400 hurdle champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the off-season to train with Behm in the Phoenix area. Behme previously coached 2012 Olympic 110 high hurdles champion Aries Merritt, who set the world record (12.80) a year later.

“There are some things last season that I wanted to improve on, and I felt like Andreas could help me get that job done,” Harrison said. “And, you know, the goal is to make that world championship team and go get gold there. You know, that’s the one thing I haven’t done in my career, and that’s one thing that is keeping me hungry.”

Orange County Register

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Mt. SAC Relays: Keni Harrison opens season with 100 hurdles win

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